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Posts Tagged ‘handcraftedholidays’

With Christmas just a few short days away, it’s time to get those gifts wrapped!

This year I really wanted to make it a “handcrafted holidays” as much as possible, so it seemed only fitting that I create my own wrapping paper design and gift embellishments as well. I know that this is a busy time of year for many people, but I wanted to take a few minutes and share a quick post with my lovely followers on how you can create your own pretties to tie onto gifts and platters of baked goodies.

The other day I shared a holly leaf stamp that I carved, that’s what I’ll be using today. You can use any of your favorite stamps. keep in mind that this doesn’t have to just be for Christmas. You can just as easily create pretty gift embellishments for any occasion using your different stamps.

You can buy different types of shrink plastic, both in the stores and online, so find whichever works best for you. I purchased mine at my local craft store.

Using StazOn ink I stamped the holly all over the rough side of the shrink plastic then used some Dina Wakley acrylic in Ruby and an eraser to stamp the berries.

Allow the paint to dry. You may be tempted to speed up the drying by using your heat tool. I don’t recommend that as you can inadvertently start to shrink your plastic.

Once the paint is dry, trim around your stamped images with scissors, making sure to leave enough room to punch a hole so you can thread some ribbon through.

Be sure to follow the instructions for the shrink plastic that you buy, mine said to pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for approx 1 minute, but I found that I only needed to bake them for about 35 seconds.

You’ll see them curl up as they shrink, then flatten out. When they flatten is when you want to pull them out with a non-stick spatula and if they need it, give them a light pressing, using a smooth book or the back of a notepad, to flatten then out.

You’ll find that the colors are much more vivid now and that your plastic has thickened considerably. Your embellishments will cool in a few seconds, but as always, be careful when handling hot plastic,

This year, I wanted to make my own gift wrap to go along with my handcrafted holiday gifts, so with Christmas fast approaching, I decided it was time to get started.

You can use this same process to make wrapping paper, but I needed gift bags, so that’s what I’ll share with you here.

When I have the time, I like to carve my own stamps, but you can use any stamps that you have on hand. For this project I carved some holly then used a pencil eraser dipped in red paint for the berries.

I started by putting a few dabs of acrylic paint onto my gelli plate. I’m not a huge fan of traditional Christmas red & green, but use whichever colors that you like.

Using a brayer, roll your paint out, covering your gelli plate. Next come the fun part…mark making. You can use stencils, or any number of mark making items that you can find around your house. You can get as elaborate as you’d like here and if you have the time, build up layers.

For this bag I used a silicone pot holder, pressing it randomly over my plate, creating marks in the wet paint.

I placed a plain white lunch bag on top and burnished it with my hand. Depending on the size of your gelli plate, you may have to work in sections to cover your bag. I have an 8×10 plate, so there is about an inch at the top of the bag that doesn’t get printed. You can either pick up your bag and press it down in an area of your plate that still has paint or leave it. In my case, that part of the bag will get folded over and no one will see it, so I left it.

Since you’re using a thin layer of paint on your gelli plate, the bag will be pretty much dry by the time you print both sides, but if you need to, hit it with a heat gun for a few seconds.

Next, I took another of my own hand carved stamps and did a little stamping around the edges of the bag.

Using a couple of my favorite white pens I added some dots & doodles to brighten it up a bit.

I stamped my holly on a piece of white cardstock, added some berries and cut it out.

Using my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, I stapled the holly to the corner of my bag for a little extra holiday cheer.

Here is another bag that I made, using my gelli plate, a texture stamp by Darkroom Door, and a hand carved circle stamp created by me.

If you don’t have a gelli plate, you can still create unique gift bags using the same white lunch bags and any stamps that you have on hand. Add a couple of sheets of tissue paper and you’re done.

In just a few short minutes you can make unique, handcrafted bag for gifts and baked goods that let the recipient know just how much they mean to you.